Murdoch sets the agenda, but will he be content with serving a small audience?

The ailing Boston Globe informed its unions on Thursday that the paper will soon begin charging readers for access to its website. "It's going to happen one way or another," said a Globe spokesman.

That news came in the wake of Rupert Murdoch's announcement that his company, News Corporation, would erect pay walls at its titles.

I would guess that Murdoch is hopeful of seeing more Boston Globe-style stories of publishers' "plans" to charge. Michael Hedges, in his perceptive piece, Rupert's risky ruse, makes the point well:

"When Mr Murdoch says his pay-for-everything plan will be 'followed by other media' he's banking his reputation as money-spinner-in-chief not only that 'other media' will follow his lead but some will forge ahead.

"Indeed, The Elder would like 'other media to take on the risk. The plan only works, if that is the design, if all news content producers throw up a pay wall."

Indeed, the New York Times media writer David Carr saw the Globe spokesman's announcement as less than convincing: "There was something vaguely oracular and final about his statement, as if saying it might make it so."

Just as I anticipated, publishers across the world are dancing to Murdoch's tune, as the Norwegian-based blogger, Kristine Lowe, has recognised, along with Murdoch's biographer Michael Wolff, who argued: "By force of will and clarity of position, he [Murdoch] defines the world."

Not this time. I think Murdoch is certainly defining the debate but he is not defining reality. There will be experiments in charging by desperate publishers, such as Mecom, the company run by former Murdoch employee, David Montgomery.

But those stampeded into introducing paid-for schemes ahead of Murdoch will surely play into the mogul's hands, as Hedges contends. Then Murdoch will be able to study the results without suffering the pain.

Anyway, what model will Murdoch adopt to impose charges? He will almost certainly link print and online in a single subscription. I cannot imagine him erecting high walls without building doors to encourage sampling.

This is a man who loves big audiences, who has always believed in volume. He is never going to be content with serving a minority of the population.

Then again, maybe his announcement is nothing more than a ploy designed to cause panic among rivals. I wouldn't rule that out.

Finally, I rather like this phrase by Robert Andrews today: "While panicky publishers increasingly view pay-to-read as an escape hatch to profit, it may also be a trapdoor to oblivion."